The present disclosure generally relates to an energy model relating to industrial automation systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for identifying and incorporating states impacting total energy used in the industrial automation system into the energy model.
Many industrial and commercial settings utilize substantial amounts of energy, in various forms, for production, material handling, welding, machining, melting, crushing, mixing, cooking, freezing, and other operations, which may account for a significant component in the cost of production and operations. In building automation settings, for example, best practices and even operating standards may utilize energy models that are mainly built for total energy consumption based only on simple rules for production schedules and simple weather conditions. Some of the energy usage data may be measured and other data may be estimated. Current approaches are, however, somewhat crude. In factory automation, a common practice is to relate the total energy consumption with production outputs over a given time period, but this relationship is too simple to provide more detailed energy usage patterns to discover inefficiencies and provide optimization opportunities.
There is a need for improved techniques for monitoring, estimating, predicting, modeling, analyzing, and/or controlling energy utilization that offers far more resolution in the analysis of where and how energy is used, permitting improvement in production and other operations, and improved visibility for engineers and managers who oversee such operations.